Metered Access

Crain's Detroit Business is a metered site. Print and digital subscribers have unlimited access to stories, but registered users are limited to eight stories every 30 days. After viewing three metered stories, you'll be asked to register or log in. After eight more stories in 30 days, you'll be asked to subscribe.

Duggan, Orr share stage and message: 'Not business as usual in Detroit'

That was the message Mayor Mike Duggan and Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr delivered Wednesday at a meeting of stakeholders of the Downtown Detroit Partnership.

About 250 people packed a meeting room at the Detroit Athletic Club for what was billed as the first time Duggan and Orr shared a public stage to discuss highlights of their shared-power arrangement.

Duggan offered three case studies of how the new administration was working:

First, Orr signed off on allowing Duggan and City Council to appoint a new Public Lighting Authority of Detroit board in mid-January. The original board had bogged down with a poorly conceived plan, Duggan said, in an attempt to bury some of the lighting lines at the expense of having enough money to install LED lighting throughout the city. Within two weeks, a new plan was adopted to roll out LED lighting and prioritize neighborhoods for new lighting.

Next, Duggan said the hearing and approval of the new hockey arena district on Tuesday was historic. "There were very strong feelings on both sides," Duggan said. "But it was an absolutely professional debate. No name calling, no histrionics. We don't have to agree on everything, but we do have to conduct ourselves professionally."

Finally, Duggan pointed to this week's hiring of a new CIO to oversee city technology and computer operations.

Duggan said Beth Niblock had been part of a team the White House sent to Detroit to review IT issues. Duggan said Niblock was the best in the group and he set about trying to woo her to take the CIO post in Detroit.

She rebuffed his overtures until he drove to Louisville to take her to dinner. "Three-and-one-half hours later, she accepted the job," a jubilant Duggan said, touting Niblock's experience as leading the IT integration for the merger of city and county government in Louisville.

"We are so nonfunctional on basic IT services," Duggan said. "We can't get city email to sync with smartphones.

"This is why I am feeling good about our future. You are starting to see a team."

Orr used the platform to create expectations for the realities after he leaves and the city emerges from bankruptcy, including setting the stage for continued financial oversight by the state.

Referring to the nearly $1 billion in a combined public-private fund to support the employee pension funds, Orr said "money always comes with strings."

When New York City had its severe financial crisis in the 1970s, the oversight board set up to review city finance stayed in business for more than 30 years. When Washington, D.C., was insolvent, the federal government required four consecutive years of a balanced budget before getting out from under oversight. And that city still has an independent CFO.

"I'm speaking now so everyone understands what is expected, not just by funders but the capital markets," Orr said.

Orr predicted Detroit will experience a resurgence beyond Miami's after problems in the early 1980s and Washington's.

"The future of the city is remarkably bright," he said.

In a Q&A session, Duggan outlined his plans to lobby for state law changes to allow the state to collect income tax for municipalities and require employers who already know where their employees are living to participate in withholding.

"Other states do this," he said.

He also asked for lobbying support to enact changes in state law to make it more difficult for "scrappers" to scavenge and vandalize homes as well as infrastructure, looking to resell stolen goods in scrap yards.

On transit: "You will not have a regional bus system until we solve the funding issue," Duggan said. First, a funding source must be created as they have in other regions with property, sales or gas taxes.